topper09er

Speaking of Macha I am curious to see 1) how fast of a learner is he and 2) does he have the brains/guts to make the correct decisions. There are people here who know the team better than Macha probably and it will take him some time to figure everything out. Everyone here knows that every time you send Suppan out you can expect a garbage performance that will require many runs + good defense + luck to win, which he has demonstrated now 2 straight starts, so how long will it take Macha to figure this out. Then, will be be like Yost and just "stick with my guys" or say if we have a better option than Suppan in the pen we are going with him. Same thing with Kendall, he is an automatic out, his slugging % will be less than .300 this year. All he does is chop out weakly and he will throw in the occasional bloop single, although I wouldnt be suprised to see some little league outfield depth for Kendall soon, especially from smart managers like La Russa. Will Macha give Rivera more starts or AT LEAST allow him to pinch hit late when we are losing, or will he just go with the verteran. I will say things I have liked so far from Macha: 1) bunting in the first innings on Friday, Weeks on 2nd, 0 outs, Hart moved him over. Braun did get a hit but a SF/groundout would have also worked. We ended up winning the game by 1 run and it proved to be the difference. 2) Piching CV in the 9th on Friday even though we were losing. I like when managers throw everything they have at winning games, I feel like Yost would have throw in Julio for mop-up duty and already given up on the game.

The only thing that pissed me off about Kendalls PT is when he was allowed to hit when we were losing in the 9th. I dont care if Kendall is the better option behind the plate in extra innings, we will never get there if he is allowed to bat. Unless there is a bunting situation Rivera should have hit every single time for Kendall when we were behind late. His defense/pitch calling is so valuable I hope he starts lots games like last year, just dont let him bat when only have a few outs left in the game and Rivera gives you a much better chance to score some quick runs (dingers)

I think it depends on the entire teams mentality. If every hitter on the team is basically trying to hit a HR every AB, then strikeouts dont matter at all and are much, much better than GIDPs. If you have a runner on 2nd with 0 outs and guy behind you just tries to hit HRs or K then it doesnt matter if you move that runner to 3rd. If your team understands the correct way to play baseball, which almost no major league teams do anymore, then Ks are bad because your goal in the situation above should be to move the runner to 3rd so the guy behind you can just groundout and score a run. I think this is the best way to try to win close games against good teams, sure you can beat the Nationals by just trying to hit dingers all day because you will probably hit a few, but you cant beat Cole Hamles in the playoffs doing that. Remember the Brewers only playoff win they scored 4 runs on 11 singles, 5 walks, no extra-base hits, 2 sac bunts and 2 SFs.

Does anyone know how many tickets you can buy if you win?

Maybe if Gamel can never learn to throw he will be our future 1B. If we could trade Prince for some serious pitching and have an infield of 3B Hardy, SS Escobar, 2B ??, Weeks??, 1B Gamel, C Solome with Braun and Hart + Yo, Parra and a pitcher for Prince....not too bad.

Starting on April 7th we have 6 straight games against the Giants and Cubs, so the only way Yo will pitch against the cubs is if he pitches on opening day and then he will pitch the series finally against the cubs on sunday, april 12. If Yo starts game 2 against the giants he will miss the cubs and start the series opener against the reds on mon, april 13. This is why people would like to see him start opening day against lincecum. The giants offense is so terrible they are beatable every day even when lincecum is pitching, and how sweet would that be for Yo's confidence if he beat the defending Cy Young champ on opening day. If they giants win no big deal, he was the best pitcher in the league last year.

No, that would mean that Sammy Sosa is the new single season HR king. I think we all have our suspicions, but there's no proof involving Sosa of anything as he was apparently uninvolved in the whole BALCO mess. Bud's biggest weakness is as a public speaker and at PR. It's extremely silly to talk about messing with the record book, with is just a collection of facts. You're getting into old school Kremlin politics when you start to talk about erasing things from history. Honestly, Bud's best course of action is just to acknowledge that it's very disappointing to learn these things. And that hopefully baseball has turned a corner with the new drug policy. And then just move on. Robert Im pretty sure everyone agrees Sosa was juicing, look at him in '98 compared to his ChiSox days, plus as soon as he was forced to stop juicing because of testing he corked his bat which he "had no idea about" because his numbers were slipping. Remember how hilarious it was when his bat cracked open and those balls flew all over the field. I think Bonds taking HGH is way different from A-Roid because the HGH essentially helped Bonds stay younger longer but A-Roid was just able to lift weights more often, he still had to hit the ball. The real question is what will happen to A-Roid, because he IS GOING to break Bonds HR record, he is ONLY 32 and has 553 HRs! If he hit 30 HRs/year it would only take him 7 years to pass Bonds, and that is a low estimate for his HRs/season over the next 7 years. This Bonds asterisk is only temporary, what should be done about Aaron vs. A-Roid is the real question.... until 2025 when Ryan Braun becomes the all-time HR king

The point of taking pitches is that if you always swing at strike 1 you never force the pitcher to throw strike 2 and 3, so you will never ever ever ever ever ever walk, so according to you you would be happy with a batter who hits .320 with and OBP of .322 because the only way someone could ever walk is if they get 4 horrible pitches in a row. Also, hitting is not that easy, all good hitters guess before there are 2 strikes. You cant just go up there and react to any 96 mph fastball and drive it everytime. So sometimes they are looking in and they take a fastball away, even though it may have been drivable if they were looking. Maybe they are looking change-op and a fastball comes down the middle. What guys like Hart does is just swing at everything. If every player could just drive every "drivable pitch" for a double in the gap then jason kendall would have had a slugging percentage of .800 last year. Just because a pitch is hittable does not mean every time the batter will hit it well, its not that easy. Corey Hart doesnt take pitches, and his OBP was .300, so im not sure that the brewers scored 3 times more runs with him doing that instead of taking some pitches. Taking pitches means taking questionable strikes so the pitcher has to throw 2 more, not taking a piped fastball. Maybe these strikes were drivable, but maybe they were a ball, but now the at bat continues and the pitcher has to make more quality pitches or maybe make a mistake and hang one. You make it sound like every pitcher is Greg Maddux and if you dont swing at the first perfect strike you are just going to see 2more perfect pitches and strike out. It is good to put pressure on the pitchers. Sometimes you need to make the pitcher prove he can consistantly throw all of his pitches for strikes.

That is not what taking pitches means, it does not mean let a piped fastball go because your only goal is to see 6 pitches this at bat. It means you are only looking for one specific pitch until you have 2 strikes, which is usually a fastball middle in. This means if the pitcher throws an offspeed pitch for a strike you dont care you let it go, even if it is a drivable strike. You are not up there looking to swing at any pitch in the zone. If there is an outside fastball you could maybe drive oppo field, you let it go because you are being very selective, of course until you have 2 strikes then everything changes. Taking pitches does lead to a higher OBP because just because a pitcher throws strike 1 does not mean he will automatically throw 2 and 3, so if you are always hacking at the first strike you will never be able to walk unless you get 4 straight balls. Taking curveball strikes and fastball strikes on the black does lead to more walks because you are making the pitcher do this to you multiple times, and it makes the pitcher throw more pitches which is always good for the offense because pretty much whoever replaces a starter from the pen is not as good. I am saying whoever is first up every inning should have this type of approach, instead of the Jim Skalaan try to hit HR with every swing you ever take approach. That means even though Corey "I am not going up there looking to walk," swing at the first pitch after the pitcher just walked the bases loaded and ground into a double play Hart needs to look for one pitch to drive if he is leading off an inning instead of taking massive swing at curveballs and striking out standing on his front foot with one hand on the bat. I think Rickie does a good job of this except for one thing which is the reason i think he struggles, he does not change his approach with 2 strikes. He just needs to learn that things change when you have 2 strikes and you are not going to get fastballs anymore and you cannot try to drive everything, yet he constantly strikes out with huge swings on sliders in the dirt instead of slapping it to right. Hopefully Svuem will work the hitters on this because they all have this problem.

I think in general in baseball the best way to score runs is to have your leadoff hitter of the inning get on base. This should be the goal of every team, but it seems like no one gets it. It doesnt matter who is up, if they are the first hitter on an inning they should act like a "leadoff hitter" and take pitches and try to have a high OBP, even if that means that Corey Hart actually sees 4 pitches in an at bat. If I was a manager I would preach this to my team and I think it would lead to a very productive offense.

The depth is good, there is no way any team only uses 5 starters, its nice to have more than 5 decent starters on any team. Hopefully Macha won't just "go with my guys" like the Ned Yost approach and if Suppan struggles his first ~10 starts he might finally be removed from the rotation. I have a feeling they are going to tell McClung you are the 6th starter out of camp and as soon as anyone goes down/struggles you are in the rotation, which McClung wont want to hear but should keep him motivated in the pen and he will do a good job there.

Im sorry, but do you really prefer players with better human interest stories!?!?!? Its time to stop watching ESPN.

The game is that simple and if the AZ would have done it they would have won, coaches just dont think it is because in theory the guy is covered, but i like i said before it doesnt matter when you have the best WR in the league. Also, how are all of the decisions that harrison had to think about before the play any different then all of the decisions i went over in my first post above? Its not, just as complex. They are both complex in different ways and take different skills and are both awesome sports to be fans of...baseball is just better though.

Baseball a lot more strategy is done by the players, whereas football the coaches design and call the plays. Think of everything a catcher has to consider when calling pitches. All hitters have to guess pitches to be effective, so if you are facing a 3-4 pitch guy there is a lot to think about. Plus a lot of your argument are the same for football/baseball. Sure Manny can fall asleep if no one hits the ball to him, just like every WR in the NFL does when there is a dive play. You dont need any fancy plays in football when you are the better team, look at the steelers offense, what is so complicated about it? They send some guys out and Big Ben trys to read the defense and find the open guy. He doesnt audible very much at the line. Every play in football calls for a decision just like in baseball, every pitch the catcher calls is the exact same as the offensive coordinator calling a play, they try to either stick with what is working and anticipate what the other team will do and try something which is effective against it. I think there are more obvious situations in football, like 3rd and long you have to pass, but if you get a hitter 0-2 what do you do, high heat, curve in the dirt, change-op, bust him inside? There may be lots of obvious decisions for the manager, but not for the battery. If you think so try to watch an entire baseball game and predict the pitch type/location. You would probably be more wrong than trying to predict run/pass in a football game, there is not usually an obvious pitch in any situation, or else any major league hitter would almost always get a hit in these situations, such as 2-0 or 3-1 when it is usually a fastball count hitter can sit on it and perform well. That is why there is strategy in the catcher calling a curve ball because the hitter will not expect it, just like an offensive coordinator calling a play action bomb on third and 1. There is skill in the pitcher actually throwing it for a strike, but the call is the strategy. My whole argument is that they are much closer than most people not think, not one over the other. If you have Tom Brady and Randy Moss there is no amount of strategy the other coach can do to change the fact that when the ball is in the air Moss will come down with it no matter how many 5'8" DBs are there, the strategy, no matter how complex by the defense, does not matter. However, if you are facing the 2004 Giants you can just walk Barry Bonds and make someone else beat you. The stratey by the defense can affect any potential weapon the other team has. I think there are way too many football coachs who dont get this, like the AZ Cards. There should have been at least 10 deep balls to Fitzgerald that game, but they were stubborn and worried about the strategy too much and thought if he was double covered you have to go somewhere else. That is why they lost, they should have thrown the strategy out the window and just thrown it up to him because he will catch it.

Yea lets not get off topic about spelling and the average intelligence of different fans, plus spelling has nothing to do with intelligence, its just memorizing random rules. Also, now i see there is a spellcheck so i will work on that for you. My main point is that the strategy involved with baseball is just as complicated as in football and that strategic decisions in baseball tend to have more of an impact on the game than in football. I think this is definitely not the conventional opinion by the average fan, but i also think the average fans knows far less about baseball then they think they do. If you dont appreciate a pitcher throwing a nasty curveball for a strike when the count is 2-0 instead of missing the zone or having to throw a fastball then i dont think you just flat do not understand the complexity of baseball any more then "pitch the ball, hit the ball, field the ball." I am not saying people on this forum dont know this, just that the average fan doesnt. I really think A LOT of people think they understand baseball but they just dont, there are so many times at brewer games or at bars when i hear people talking about the game to their friends and are just so wrong they have no idea. Like when on TV a pitcher throws a change-op down the middle and the hitter takes it and everyone is like, what is he looking at, that was right down the middle...but they dont understand the hitter is looking fastball, or anyone who thinks that if a pitcher has a lot of wins they must be really good or if they dont have a good W/L % they must be bad pitchers regardless of their ERA, WHIP, Ks, OppBA etc. There are so many examples of things like this, but there are lots of fans who understand what zone vs. man defense is in football or play action passing or blitzing but they dont realize there are things which are analogous to those concepts in baseball.

Sorry, im an engineer and my brain thinks too logically and i suck at spelling, but if i reduced you to needing to criticize my spelling instead of addressing my arguement i think that shows you are wrong.

If you have even played football you may have heard the expression "its not the x's and the o's, its the jimmys and the joes." This means that it doesnt matter if in theory Larry Fitzgerald is double covered and should not be open during a particular play, if you throw him the ball he will catch it anyways even if there are 2 DBs there. This is why the Cardinals lost, because they did not go to him early or often enough. Its not that complicated, all you need to do is send him deep, protect teh QB and throw it there, not too complicated. At the end of the day the teams that wins football games almost always comes down to who controls the line a scrimmage best and who control field position best. There are some complicated thing, for the quarterback or middle linebacker, but not too much for everyone else. You have a blocking assignment, just do it, if you move the other guy more than he moves you then you win, if not you lose. What is so complicated for the WR, here is a route to run, run it. If there is no help over the top change to a fly route, if the ball comes to you catch it. Or the RB, here is the hole, hit it hard and get what you can after. Besides Qb decision making i really do not think it is any more complicated than the scenario i presented earlier. And yes, i think most people would agree that the most popular things in our culture are most liked by comparitively dumb people. I think the strategy decisions in baseball have a bigger effect on the outcome of the game then in football where the physical ability of the players has a greater outcome on the result. A baseball manager can just intentionally walk the cleanup hitter, a football coach cant tell the other team they are not allowed to throw the ball to their best reciever or they can run the ball to the weak side of the D-Line.

Do you think the average person who likes sports overall is above or below the average intelligence level of the country, I would say below. And what is the most popular sport among the masses, football because it appears like more is going on every play. What else appeals to more people, MTV or the History Channel, youtube or cnn.com?? I think you get the point. I would say they are very close in terms of complexity. What should you do if you are pitching in a tied game and the leadoff hitter just got and he has stolen 50 bases this season at a clip of 85%, the hitter is a contact hitter who does not stike out much and is a good bunter. You have your starting pitcher in who has struck out the hitter 3 times this game but appears to be struggling now because the runner on first got a hit off of hanging slider. The current hitter is a righty, with 2 leftys on deck. Who should you get up in the bullpen, how should you position the defense? Say the hitter is an inside out type guy but you struck him out on soft away stuff 3 times this game. Is the other team going to try to hit and run? If so you should not pitch outside because that is what the hitter wants. Are they going to try to straight up steal? Should you pitch fastballs to try to give the catcher extra time to throw out the runner, what if the batter is a good fastball hitter? Should you pitch out, do you think the other manager is expecting you to pitch-out so he is not going to put a play on until the batter has a strike against them. Do you think they will bunt, how will you play your bunt defense? Do you want your entire infield moving only to have the batter slash and hit and run with 2 huge holes in the defense because of your rotation. Do you think maybe the batter will bluff a bunt to see your defensive rotation so maybe you run the wheel for the first bunt attempt but then charge the fist baseman next time. What pitch should you throw with the 0-0 count? As a fan, would you appreciate the difference between strike one vs. ball one. Say the batter was totally taking and it is now 1-0, you dont know what the offense is thinking, are they thinking nothing until strike one so maybe you can get away with piping a fastball now, or maybe they have a hit and run on now so you should throw some off speed pitch in the dirt. Can you afford to thorw the ball in the dirt at all, is the runner fast enough to get to 2nd if the pitch is not handled perfectly by the catcher? Say the batter fouls off the next pitch and it is now 1-1, can you appreciate the importance of this next pitch? The difference between 1-2 vs. 2-1?? If you can get the hitter to 1-2 you can start to throw your slider/curve to try to induce a grounder for a doubleplay (which Brain Anderson just reminded you would be great for the brewers in this situation), but now the runner may be expecting a pitch in the dirt so he will take off and easily steal the base if the catcher has to block the ball....what if you walk him and you have 2 lefties in the pen, you have one shouse-like ground ball pitcher and say some hard throwing strikeout guy, who do you bring in? And it goes on forever, you can say the same thing about how a quarterback needs to recognize that when the safety comes up to the line he should audible out of a run and that maybe if you send the slot receiver in motion he will have the other safety on him M2M which is a good matchup up for you so the receiver should change from a slant to a corner route because it will be open...but if you do all that and throw an incomplete pass it is just 2nd and 10, but if you figure out you can throw a fastball for a strike when it is 2-1 and miss your spot it is now 3-1 instead of 2-2 and everything changes...

I think the departure of Jim Skaalan is the final piece in the puzzle that will cause a bunch of our underperforming hitters to finally break out. I mean, he has got to be one of the worst hitting coaches I have ever seen. How could he possibly look at the approaches that Weeks/Hall/Hart take every at bat and be happy with it. How many times are these guys taking massive HR swings with 2 strikes on an offspeed pitch away or rolling over on outside pitches weakly grounding out to short, waaaaayyyyyy too much. Sveum said after the playoffs the team needs to learn how to take better approaches because when you get to the playoffs you face good pitching (Hamels) who can easily get HR hitters out with off speed stuff and he just totally dominated the brewers. If Sveum is going to force these guys to hit the ball where it is pitched and shorten up with 2 strikes and things like this they will all break out and we will surprise a lot of people with our improved hitting. That is basically what Hall did all of 2006, when he hit .270 with 35 HRs. Then he starting trying to hit homers and now he is about as good as me against RHP and has no power. Weeks has done this his entire career, constantl striking out while taking massive swings and no one seemed to care/say something to him like "shorten up." Instead, Yost and others were just like I beleive in my guys and always stand behind whatever they do even if they are taking horrible approaches to try to hit a few HRs. I think Weeks deserves another chance with a real baseball coach/manager who will demand he plays the game correctly, if they do and he still sucks then trade him, but I think he will be much better this year if Sveum forces them to take major league approaches.

Seriously?!?!? If you are a real baseball fan then you should support the integrity of the game rather than trying to attract a few fare weather fans who like to see dingers. Also, now the WBC classic is a joke and no one will take it seriously or care about the results or get really excited to watch it. It is a total exhibition now, which is too bad because if it could somehow even come close to something like the world cup in the future that would be awesome, but now it looks like 10 years from now it might not even exist / have even more little league rules and be terrible.

Well this is very sad, hopefully this will not lead us into the same 4~5 year slump we had when Vasgersian left after the 2001 season. The good news though is that now there is finally room for Davey Nelson in the booth as the Brewers radio man for the rest of the Uke's career and hopefully many years after.